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Monthly Archives: September 2016

I’ve worked a bit with a redundant Remote desktop Gateway (RDGW) solution where we have 2 RDGW servers in NLB, providing a redundant access to various Remote Desktop collection. RDGW provides access without the need for VPN as it encapsulates RDP into HTTPS packets.

RDGW defines access through Client Access Policy (CAP) and Resource Access Policy (RAP). The CAP states the requirement (smart card/group membership) in order to connect through the RDGW. RAP states which resources internally are available to whom, based on group membership. RAP can provide access to either members of an AD group, members of a RDGW-defined computer group, or all resources on the network. So for a user to connect to a resource, we need both a CAP and RAP which both allows him/her access to use the RDGW and to access the resource respectively.

So when you have a redundant RDGW implementation with 2 or more RDGW servers, you need to make sure all servers have the same CAP and RAP configuration or you will have seemingly random connectivity issues for the end users. Once again Powershell saves the day.

The following script connects to each RDGW server specified and creates CAP and RAP and RDGW-computer group (if needed). It is still a work with progress with room for tuning and expanding, and as always copy with pride. The script is available here

Currently I am in a project which will migrate several users in a large AD environment from one site to another as the current site is being decommissioned. This involves (among other things) migrating files and DFS Namespace to another file server and domain controllers and since this is a repetitive task for each department, I’ve made myself a sort of workbook in Powershell that I’d like to share with you.

This is a script which I load into an elevated PowerShell ISE, and change the input variables in the top and save a copy for each department. Then I can load the script I need, run all parameters and just mark and run selection (F8 hotkey) depending on the task at hand. The script is divided into 11 parts for tasks during preparation and during cut over. I’ve used comments to clearly divide the tasks.

To put it in perspective: The script linked will handle:

The department “Billing”

Short-reference “Bill”

Currently has a share named “Billing$” on the old file server

Linked to the DFS Namespace “\\corp.contoso.com\Bill” which is used for drive mapping.

The script will check and perform the different tasks needed to move their data to another file server and update both DFS Root Targets to the new domain controllers (which will host the namespace itself).and Folder Targets which points to the new file server.

Personally I found this makes it a lot easier, as the project goes on, to handle several ongoing migration jobs either in preparation or at cut over phase. It also makes sure the result is consistent and reduces the risk for failure.

As always feel free to use and customize to meet your own requirements